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in Oxford American
by
Belle Boggs, No. 59: The Sports Issue
Boggs spends a day with treasure hunter Temple Ryland in Virginia, searching for Civil War relics such as bullets, buttons, and belt buckles (a particular one from Arizona being his current interest). Boggs profiles Ryland from his beginnings as kid too small to carry his own metal detector to being an outlaw hunter illegally digging up treasure in the middle of the night. Today he's an amateur historian, lending his relics to museums and teaching kids land-surveying techniques. Ryland's story is reflected in Bogg's writing -- "solitary, meditative, detail-oriented, and inherently narrative."
Posted 4:34, 18 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Elizabeth Niemiec
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
Hal Crowther, No. 59: The Sports Issue
High-level collegiate and professional athletics have joined the ranks of the most scandal-prone institutions in American society. Sports pages across the country seem to spill at least as much ink over steroids, cheating schemes, and indictments as they do over box scores -- making a joke of the term "student athlete." Yet, as Crowther convincingly argues, what keeps fans coming back from utter disillusionment is sports' unparalleled power to inspire. While the elite athlete disappoints us at his all-too-human worst, we still stand in awe of him during moments of greatness.
Posted 2:45, 18 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Colby Clabaugh
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
John T. Edge, No. 59: The Sports Issue
Edge takes a look at Ken Ford, a well-off NASA scientist who wears bespoke suits and takes his eating very, very seriously. Edge's piece is half profile of the scientist and half meditation on enjoying food; he catalogs Ford's endless list of restaurant recommendations (from Shanghai to New Orleans) while offering crumbs of knowledge, from the genesis of Thai fusion to the lost art of cooking with sorrel. Overall, though, the article is disorienting -- a profile of someone neither celebrity nor everyman, and lacking the depth to be a food story on its own.
Posted 4:53, 11 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Orr Shtuhl
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
Melissa King, No. 59: The Sports Issue
King wrote a book about playing in pick-up basketball games, but, as her editor put it, the book was a "sports as an allegory for life" kind of book. She gives a hilarious account of ending up on a sports radio show where the DJ quizzed her about the WNBA, Title IX, and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Of course, they both found she had little to say on any of those topics; it was only later that King thought of all the "profound stuff" she wished she could have used in her incongruous appearance. It's a short, witty account of paralysis at the hands of fear and self-consciousness.
Posted 4:46, 11 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Lori Crews
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
Roy Blount, Jr., No. 59: The Sports Issue
Unless you're an aficionado of baseball history, Kirby Higbe might not be familiar to you. But Blount delivers a poignant article about how the 1950s pitcher, an "uneducated old boy from the deep old South," wrote what is widely considered one of the best sports books ever. Some say Higbe was a racist -- he made a name for himself by quitting the Dodgers when Jackie Robinson joined the team -- but during his fascinating life he left an indelible impression on those that knew him.
Posted 1:39, 11 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Lori Crews
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
William Caverlee, No. 59: The Sports Issue
Both Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer are romanticized as eccentric Americans who conquered the chess world, but the similarities end there. In this brief but compelling biography, Caverlee depicts the 19th-century Morphy as a character from a Tennessee Williams play. To Morphy, chess was a childish diversion abandoned in his twenties, and he soon grew tired of discussing the game. In public, Morphy became an archetype of solemn New Orleans Victorian refinement, while in private the occasionally-paranoid Morphy spent his final decades obsessing about money and status while living with his mother. His mother found him dead in the bathtub at age 47. Tennessee Williams: 1, Bobby Fischer: 0.
Posted 10:12, 10 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Marc Shelikoff
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
Taylor Bruce, No. 59: The Sports Issue
In this eloquent and moving piece, Taylor Bruce chronicles the dramatic death of Dernell Stenson, a Cincinnati Reds minor leaguer who was killed in an apparent carjacking gone wrong in Arizona. Bruce tells how four men conspired to steal from a well-off stranger, but when the operation went awry, one of the men shot Stenson, and they left him for dead. Stenson's friends and family are unsettled by this account; such a tragic loss is hard to attribute to mere chance, and Jennifer Gaddis, his Indianapolis girlfriend who had threatened him before, provides the fodder for conspiratorial beliefs.
Posted 4:48, 8 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Derek Golden
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
Michael Parker, No. 59: The Sports Issue
After years of smoking and drinking until the vices led to divorce, Michael Parker turned to competitive cycling to alleviate his sort of mid-life crisis. In this touching but sometimes rambling piece, Parker chronicles his psychological and physical struggles in the name of competition and tells how he often relied on the support of his teenage daughter, Emma to continue. Parker's story is a compelling metaphor for life's certain difficulties, the impetus needed to overcome them, and the eminent satisfaction of doing so.
Posted 4:44, 8 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Derek Golden
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
Kane Webb, No. 59: The Sports Issue
Webb recounts his experiences at the racetrack, flipping between childhood memories with his father at a small Oaklawn Park race and tales of his first journalism job covering the Kentucky Derby. Webb remarks on racetrack culture's "sense of cohesion and solidarity" passed down from father to son, and how it contrasts with the cigar-chewers of the Hollywood version. The sport Webb describes is all-inclusive and alive -- and his prose is just as exhilarating.
Posted 5:28, 7 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Shifra Katz
and edited by Brijit.
in Oxford American
by
David Payne, No. 59: The Sports Issue
Payne fights his own civil war, defending Southern literature against a perceived Northern bias that he writes is borne out of a stereotype of being emotional and loquacious. Though long-winded, he makes some striking points -- noting that Faulkner was only catapulted to fame and glory when Malcolm Cowley, a Northerner, published The Portable Faulkner. Similarly, Cormac McCarthy stepped into the spotlight when he started writing about the West instead of the South. In the end, Payne concludes with a half-hearted reconciliation, realigning the conflict as America vs. the world.
Posted 3:49, 4 January 2008
This abstract was written by
Jacquelyn Gilchrist
and edited by Brijit.